UMass Dartmouth Center for Indic Studies calls on former students to defend it ahead of administration's review

DARTMOUTH — Fearing a possible closure, the UMass Dartmouth Center for Indic Studies is encouraging its students to begin a letter-writing campaign aimed at senior university officials, according to an email obtained by The Standard-Times.

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By MATT CAMARA

southcoasttoday.com

By MATT CAMARA

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 28, 2013 at 8:16 AM

By MATT CAMARA

Posted Feb. 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 28, 2013 at 8:16 AM

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DARTMOUTH — Fearing a possible closure, the UMass Dartmouth Center for Indic Studies is encouraging its students to begin a letter-writing campaign aimed at senior university officials, according to an email obtained by The Standard-Times.

The effort comes in reaction to Chancellor Divina Grossman's plan to scrutinize campus centers as part of a deficit reduction plan.

"There is a danger that some centers will be closed. We are not sure about the situation with the Center for Indic Studies, although it is likely that our Indic Studies minor (program) will be cut," center director Bal Ram Singh wrote to current and former students last Thursday. "The process is going on very fast, so it appears to (be) non-transparent."

UMass Dartmouth interim Provost Alex Fowler, however, told The Standard-Times that no decisions about any centers have been made. The provost also denied that he is "generally against centers," an accusation leveled by Singh in his email.

Administrators will start reviewing each of the university's centers come March as UMass Dartmouth continues to grapple with a $13.2 million deficit.

The deficit-reduction strategy has featured a cost-benefit analysis of each center since Grossman first announced the shortfall in January.

The university has about 20 centers ranging from an institute of French culture to a high-security botulism research laboratory.

Reached earlier this week, Singh said the minor's low enrollment prompted him to write his email to make sure students "understood" that the review could put the center on shaky ground before adding that he was "not trying to be alarmist."

The center's courses, such as the popular Science of Kriyayoga (a class that blends yoga, physiology and philosophy), routinely pack classrooms, but the minor has seen anemic enrollment with only one or two pupils in the program at any time, Singh said.

The center receives about $45,000 from UMass Dartmouth and supports itself with another $150,000 in outside funding. A loss of institutional support could force the center to offer fewer courses and make it harder to attract donations, Singh said.

Officials countered that there is no plan to automatically shut down centers across campus.

The university's centers, in many cases, should be drawing in enough outside funding to become self-sufficient and part of the review process will look at whether students should "continue to subsidize" some of the institutes.

The $45,000 amounts to tuition for four students, Fowler said, dismissing the idea that the sum is insignificant relative to the university's deficit.

The email — which included a generic letter students could use — resulted in "a few" messages sent to administrators, Singh said and a former Indic Studies professor defended the center as vital to providing a cultural experience often lacking at smaller universities.

"It's a diversifying component ..." former Indian civilization professor Srinivas Reddy said by Skype Tuesday night from Ahmedabad, India.